


Abarenbou Troll

by Kuroitora_chan



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Alpha Karkat Vantas, Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Alternate Universe - High School, M/M, Omega Dave Strider, Plot, Smut
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-05
Updated: 2020-10-27
Packaged: 2021-03-05 20:28:23
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 15,584
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25721338
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kuroitora_chan/pseuds/Kuroitora_chan
Summary: Dave has to fight off whoever wants to date him for the chance of being with someone he likes.But what if that someone never even challenges him?
Relationships: Dave Strider/Karkat Vantas
Comments: 14
Kudos: 50





	1. Chapter 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Introduction to why.

It was training time - also known as one hour and a half after my last bag of Doritos and 5 seconds to my new upcoming demonstration of awesome - and this time I had a plan.

Thank fucking god the sun was already setting, which meant the place wasn’t feeling like the ass of a Magmar that decided to take a hot steaming dump on an active volcano. I felt my feet light, and that’s exactly how they had to be for my plan to work.

That’s it Bro. Prepare yourself, cause here comes the thunder.

He looked as unimpressed as always when I finally got to the rooftop. Keep your foes waiting, even if it makes you look like an asshole. Half of the victory of any strife is in the mind games. Yeah, that’s right. I know your cool stance and unimpressed face and plain open entrances are all mind games. I’m already two steps ahead of you.

“Took you long enough.”

Whatever. I just have to put my plan into motion.

I flashstep, going to one location after another and surrounding him with five center points. Bet you can’t know which one is which, now. Bet you can’t hit me. Not even Bro can’t hit something he can’t see. Do you see this lightning? Cause the only thing Imma let you see is the light of my tastylicious behind.

Then out of nowhere I feel like my foot didn’t land quite right on the floor. What the fuck? A shuriken? But when did he even throw that shit? 

And just like that, my whole plan is ruined. I bounce across the floor like the ragdoll of a 6 year-old that decided they wanted a new toy and a tantrum would be the best way to get what they wanted, stopping short of the steel tower that held the TV and internet signal.

Fucking shit.

Turning around, Bro is already all up on my business, ready to slice and dice my ice. If you think you could hold your cool in my situation, you are deluded, motherfucker.

On instinct I knock his sword to the side and get up, coughing a little.

“Did you just scream?”

“No, that was- that was from a song.”

“Yeah. Sure.”

Bro goes for an horizontal cut and I duck.

“No. Seriously. Why would I scream?”

I lunge at him but he parries and breaks my sword in half. Why do I insist on owning these wastes of metal in sword shape?? Pieces of shit!

I’m finished when he headbutts my face and kicks me in the chest, breaking my nose and sending me flying through the roof. At least this time my face is not being used as a pillow to cushion my fall, just my arm.

Ohhh. This scrape is gonna hurt like hell on the shower and my nose is bleeding like a fucking pussy with too intense a flow.

Bro comes closer, step by step. I don’t know if he still wants to fight, but my body sure as shit doesn’t.

I don’t know why I thought it would be different from all the other times just because I had a slightly better thought out plan this time. I thought that I was going to get magically better now that I was older. Now that my freshman year was coming, but… I’m just as bad at this as ever.

“Are you just going to lay there?”

What would I even do if I got up? My arm is useless, my nose is a weak spot to be mashed again and again, my sword is broken and far.

We stood there. Him, looking at me, and me, looking anywhere else because I knew that if I looked at him the disappointment in his face would just make me want to cry worse than I already do.

“What do I do to you?”

I look up and open my eyes as much as I can. Can’t even risk blinking, or this is going to be so much more embarrassing than the scream. He already looks down on me. He already thinks I’m weak.

Am I really that weak?

“You’re already 15 and you can’t even unarm me yet.”

You grip that shit like it’s made out of gold, we are poor and have another 7 mouths to feed. How am I supposed to make you let go of your fucking katana? You would rather lose your fucking dick for how long you spend with that thing. I bet you jack holding it on the other hand.

“What was that?”

Shit! 

“Nothing.”

“If you have something to say, just say.”

“It’s nothing. Just some lyrics I’m editing in my head.”

Shit, I can’t believe I was saying that out loud. If he heard me I would be so utterly dead.

“Dave, do you even listen to anything I teach you? Ever?”

“Yes!”

“Then I do you make a show of your flashstepping when I told you to stop wasting energy? Why didn’t you put your chin to your chest when my headbutt aimed at your nose? Why did you avoid falling? You know you’re supposed to go with the flow. Rounder movements are easier to make you pick your pace back up. You know these things.”

I know these things rationally, but I don’t know these things for realz. I didn’t think I’d have to use them all and my body is not used to resorting to them yet. Though I really hate the idea of getting headbutted several times, just so I can learn that I should put my chin to my chest.

Bro just keeps looking at me. He taps his foot like he’s thinking about how to solve a problem. 

How to solve me.

“I didn’t want to resort to that, but you’re already enrolled, so there’s no way I would manage to keep you inside the house for a full year.”

He thought about house arrest? And whatever he is thinking, he thinks it’s worse than that? 

He turned on me and I rose up to my feet.

“Bro, what is it?”

He payed my question no mind. It was like I wasn’t even there.

“Bro, what are you going to do?”

He went behind the staircase and got a bundle of tied rope from there.

“Bro, what is the rope for?”

Is he going to use that on me?

“I tried teaching you normally, but you simply can’t seem to catch up” at each word I gave a step back “so instead we are going to play a game. Well, mostly you.”

“I don’t want to play this game.”

“You don’t get to choose.”

Bro drops the bundle of rope on the ground, right in front of my feet.

It’s not to tie me?

“That is technically not a normal rope. I bought that at an Anime convention a couple years back and it's one of those ropes that banish evil spirits. That’s why it’s so thick. I only ever used it once, so it should hold together if you step on it and shit like that.”

“Why are you giving me rope?”

“Because from now on until you graduate, you’re a shield maiden. A sort of Utena kinda thing.”

Uhhh…

“What the fuck is a shield maiden?”

“The whole thing is that you’re supposed to get hitched with whoever defeats you in combat, but that would be too much, even for me, so basically, I’m toning it down to: you have to date whoever defeats you in combat.”

“Wait, but isn’t this supposed to make me stronger? Shouldn’t I get to date whoever I defeat in combat?”

“No, because heating omegas are useless. So you need to be with someone that can take care of your useless ass. And I’m also kind of counting that you have good taste and would want to turn down most of the challengers and to do that, you have to win.”

I push the rope with my feet to feel its weight. It’s heavy.

“What happens if I lose to someone that… you know… doesn’t uhm… tickle my fancy?”

“You challenge them again. But as long as you’re the loser, they get to have you.”

“So I’m a thing? You’re both cockblocking and objectifying me.”

“Hey, I taught you how to fight. If you’re going to let people own you, that’s not on me.”

Bro picks the rope and puts in in my hands. My scraped arm hurts just touching it. This thing looks like it could give rope burns to an oak.

“So are you gonna keep whining, or are you going to start winning?”


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> First day of school.
> 
> Heavy hand holding ensues.

I got there early cause I didn’t want anyone to see where I’d put the ring and also to dodge some nosy people that could find me on the way, but the school was packed like a Tenacious D Rock concert, except that people were less drunk and nobody was smoking as far as I could see - which didn’t mean it wasn’t happening.

Close to the walls there were bulletin boards with classes and locker assignments for each student but I couldn’t see mine, no matter how hard I pushed beyond the crowd.

Above the bulletin board, tightly pressed against the wall, I saw a pipe running down from a window on the second floor. If I could go down that pipe and get upside down on my hands and above the rest of the crowd, I could find my name easier.

On my way to the second floor I found John and Rose leaning on some lockers closer to the bathrooms, but they weren't open and neither of them seemed too keen on trying to open them.

“Sup” I say all casual like.

“Dave!” John exclaims, throwing himself on top of me with both arms open. Can’t catch me off guard, not when I’m always on my tippy toes, Egbert. Constricting attacks are no match to my unprecedented patented speed.

I grab his hand and twist it behind his back, pressing him face first on the locker wall.

“Ow, ow, ow,” John complained and soon I let it go. I don’t want to hurt him, he’s my friend.

“Surprise attacks can’t land on a guy that has eyes on the back of his neck and lightning on his step, dude.”

“I wasn’t attacking you, I just wanted to give you a hug!”

Wait, what? Why would he want to do that? Do I look sad?

Rose is watching all of this with a poorly hidden smirk. She is definitely psychoanalysing this, the mind witch. She does manage to school her expression enough to speak.

“It’s not unusual for friends to want to enjoy physical touch after spending as much time apart as we have. Do you even remember when was the last time we met all four of us, even if Jade is still missing from the current picture?”

“It was during the last Problem Sleuth convention, wasn’t it,” John’s answer comes off as more of a question “that we even cosplayed and Dave lost his hat and Jade threatened whoever took it with a half eaten hot dog in hand.”

John immediately starts laughing and Rose and I follow suit. Jade is usually the sweetest person I know after John himself, but fuck that when someone gets her pissed. She turns straight out murdersome and that shit can give you nightmares. That poor guy didn’t know he wasn’t actually dealing with me, in the end.

I’m usually much more collected and know to let go of things that don’t matter.

“Do any of you know which classes we’ve been assigned?” I ask.

“We were actually waiting for Jade to come and push the crowd off to get to know that.”

“However, as you can see, she hasn’t been quite present” Rose points.

“I have an idea to solve that problem, but I need someone to cover my ass.”

Rose takes her purple jacket off and uses it as a towel from behind me “There you go. What else?”

John snickers and I just roll my eyes, but then I realize I’m wearing Shades and they didn’t get it, so I roll my entire head for emphasis.

“I’m going to do a literal acrobatic pirouette and if any teachers catch me, I’ll be screwed.”

“Oooooh! We are finally going to see!”

“In this fateful day we shall experience-”

“Dave’s acrobatic pirouette off the handle!” they say at the same time.

Did they rehearse that? You guys have too much time to waste.

“Just cover for me, okay?”

We go up to the second floor and I leave my bag with John, then I open the window and still see that sea of people. I place my feet on the edge of the wall while holding tightly on the pipe and just so I could know how far down I’d have to slide, I look down.

Well, this was a mistake. Is this thing even capable of holding my weight? The bulletin board seems so fucking far down. And what happens if I fall down on all these people below me?

That’s when I hear the flash of a camera and I know I can’t back down.

Game face: On.

I crack my neck and slide down the pipe like it’s a pole dance and I’m the hottest piece the club has to offer. The money maker. The power combo of cute face and hot bod.

The tips of my feet land on the top of the bulletin board and I cross them to turn around. Several people have their phones out now, so how could I not bow to such an attentive audience.

So far, it’s been nothing but an equilibrium test, but now things get a little more complicated.

I spread my legs and grab the top of the board right in the middle, then I use my core to suspend my lower body up, closing my legs in a perfect synchronized move.

Then my shirt rides down and blocks my view.

This is bad. This is so fricking bad. This is so so so fucking bad.

But suddenly I heard applause and people cheering.

Guys, I know ya’ll think I’m awesome but this is definitely not part of the plan, hahaha.

Okay. Okay. I just have to hold my weight with a single arm and use the other to remove the rest of the shirt. It’s blocking my view and I can catch it later.

When I manage the crowd gives me another round of applause. I could get used to this, not gonna lie. Having this much praise almost makes me embarrassed.

Almost.

I ask someone close to the front to hold my shirt and focus on what I actually came down here to do. My eyes run the lists for our names and to my happy surprise, all of us are in the same class. Cool. 1st B, class 413.

Information acquired, time to go back up.

I use my arms and core combined to plant my feet back on the top of the board, close my legs and bow again. Another round of applause comes and I ask my shirt back. When I put it on people start booing me and I shrug.

“Can’t go to class shirtless, guys.”

I round back to the pipe and climb it up to the window. John looks at me like I’m a giant robot and he’s been selected to pilot me. Rose gives me an impressed frown with a couple of slow, sideways claps.

“Why aren’t you two checking if anyone is coming?”

Rose fishes her phone out and shows me the brand new stories of the school page made by the Student Council on Instagram.

“What would be the point of that again?” sarcasm and mockery painting her every word.

“Putting that aside, where should we be headed now?” She asks, putting her phone away.

“1st B, room 413.”

“Cool! Like my birthday!”

Shit. I still have no idea what I’m giving John this year. Not even a sliver of an idea.

Soon enough we get to 413 and take the middle seats when I remember I should use this time to go and set the ring somewhere around the school. I get up and take my bag, leaving my jacket and my water bottle just to keep my seat.

“Where are you going?”

“I have to go check one last thing before I can chill. But I don’t think it’ll take long or anything.”

“Indeed it better not. There are only 15 minutes left before class begins.”

“Shit, I really gotta go then.”

Checking up on Rose’s warning on my phone I decide to run to the back of the school, hoping that will be the perfect hiding spot for my dirty little secret. Urgh, why does it sound sexual? Though I guess it kinda is… You know what, let’s not think about the implications, because they can be hunky and hot and like to play with my lower bits and-

Why am I thinking about this??

Think about something stupid like… like… like Thropic Thunder.

The scene Robert D. Jr does with Stiller. The dudes. The dudes are emerging.

Then the scene Robert holds hands in a weirdly sexy way with Toby Maguire pops in my head and, with it, a boner that really shouldn’t be here right now. I knock my head on a tree hoping I can knock the hornyness out of my head.

This really ain’t the place for this!

Wait. A tree? No. Several. This place has literal woods?? I’m so lost. I passed by a courtyard with some girls playing volleyball and a couple tables with some guys playing some random trade card game - I think it was Magic, but what do I know? - and then I just kept walking in a straight line. Well, this does seem like a place to hide something, now I just have to find a place that can fit this in diameter.

Everywhere I look I just find more trees that look exactly the same.

I’m going to have a problem with this ain’t I?

Browsing around the forest trying to find somewhere to fit my 17 feet long love ring - that just sounds so fucking wrong - I actually stumble upon a weird situation.

There’s 4 guys, two trolls and two humans, but one of the humans doesn’t seem to be friends with the other guys and his face is all red. Are they humiliating him? Maybe he deserves it. Maybe these guys have a past and I shouldn’t do anything. What if I pick a side I didn’t want to? 

Then there’s a squabble that ends quickly and two of the three guys are holding the last one by the arms. One of the two trolls uses his claws to rip the front of the guy’s shirt off. The human tries to get his arms loose and shakes his head, but the troll guy just holds his face up by the jaw. That guy is crying.

"HEY ASSHOLES!” Comes a voice from somewhere “EAT BRICK.”

Out of the absolute fucking blue, there’s a literal brick flying in a perfectly aimed straight line, right into the face of the troll positioned in front of the human. The face of the guy contorts to a perfectly flat shape on one side, and one of his fangs flies out with a spray of blood.

And it’s beautiful.

A troll with short and wildly styled hair shows up from behind the trees wearing a black turtleneck, gray jeans, and yelding another clay brick. One could tell he was angry by the sheer amount of gum he was showing and his teeth were meant to rip and shred like a shark in deep waters.

There was pretty much no more doubt to be had after he did that, so I just drew my sword, flashstepped and cut off the belts of the two guys who were left. Their pants fell and I took a shot with my phone of the matching undies they were sporting. 

“Hey, I bet that’s gonna trend more than me once I make a stories out of it.”

They try to put their pants back on and I shake my phone with the picture on screen, to show I’m not joking.

“Why don’t you three add Rapist Crew on your profile description? Then maybe your parents will see the turds they’ve been raising and mistakenly calling son” He adds, viciousness present not only in his words but in his stance and the way he kept bouncing the last brick up and down.

“It was his fault!” The human goonsays, pointing at the fallen troll.

“He’s the one that planned this whole thing!” the other troll adds.

Brick Troll stops bouncing his toy, looks at them menacingly at them and says “Then get him and get the fuck out.”

They stop, look at each other and not even a second later brick troll roars. 

“I SAID GET THE FUCK OOOOOOOOOUT!” 

The two minions suspended their wrecked boss by the arms and scrambled out of the woods faster than Brick Troll could regain his breath after that heart shattering roar. My dick didn’t know if it was supposed to rise or hide and I don’t even think I could blame it. 

“Thank you” the last guy says. 

“Shut up. Stop wasting energy. Can you stand? Yes or no?” 

“N- No” he answers looking away, tears in his eyes.

It's not just the flushed face and the tears, this entire thing started and stopped in a matter of minutes. The fight he had just seeped out of him when he got surrounded. I don't want to think what would have happened but, if Brick Troll hadn't interviened, this guy was just going to let it happen. He didn't flail, didn't scream, he was just… waiting. 

Is this how I’m gonna look when my heat hits? How I'm gonna be? This- this- pathetic and week and useless? 

“Hey, Bulletin Board Boy, help me here.”

And just like that I'm wrenched out of my spiral of fear and self doubt. Thanks, troll dude. 

“Oh, so we’re on a nickname basis already. Okay Brick Troll.” 

“For fuck sakes- My name is Karkat, okay? Now stop being useless and help me lift him.” 

I grab one of the guy’s arms and lift him up with Karkat holding the other one. 

“I know it’s gonna sound dumb, but endulge me okay? Can you walk?” 

The guy gives a step forward and stops. Then another. Then another. Always holding on trees. He looks at Karkat like he had worked magic on the guy.

“Don’t ask. Biology is weird. Just follow straight through these trees and you’re gonna end up in the Nursery’s office.” 

“Thanks again.”

“DON’t thank me. Beating people up makes us trolls look bad. Just don’t fucking tell anyone.” 

Karkat picks his phone, looks at it and starts to power walk through the woods, which reminds me that I should ask him what’s the time. 

“Hey, how long till class starts?” 

“Another 7 minutes. And why are you following me?” 

“I’m abso-fucking-lutely lost, man. You look like you know where you’re going.” 

“Wow, I wasn’t gonna judge at first but you’re a blatant idiot, aren’t you? That little stunt of yours on the Bulleting Board could have ended up with your neck broken, right now you just took a fucking katana out of your captcha and picked a fight with three people in the middle of a place you can’t navigate and decided to follow a random stranger even deeper into said place. What If I was a psycho? HUH? What if I was taking you to my evil lair to disembowel your pretty face?”

“You think I’m pretty. Thanks, but I already knew that.”

“THAT’S NOT WHAT YOU WERE SUPPOSED TO GET OUT OF THAT! ARE YOU A FULL ON RETARD?” 

“Hey, never go full retard.” 

“... You didn’t just Tropic Thunder me…”

Karkat turns around and starts walking even faster than before - probably trying to leave me behind - but all I heard was ‘hey, I’ve watched tropic thunder too. wanna discuss what a masterpiece it is?’ and how could I say no to that? But before I can open my mouth to start an in depth analysis of Ben Stiller's greatest work yet, we get to a clearing. 

This place can definitely fit my ring.

Karkat bolts to a fallen log and opens a ziplock. 

What is he going to do with that? 

He crouches in front of the bark and starts hunting juicy bugs from it. The only reason I know they’re juicy is because his claw pierced one of them and the thing started spilling bug blood everywhere. I almost puked seeing him eat it right away and even licking his fingers, like the bug splatter was just dorito dust. Blergh. 

I leave him to his snacks and splay my ring all over the place, trying to get its complete diameter and hammer a nail with the brick Karkat didn’t get to use. When I’m done he snatches it out of my hand. 

“I never said you could use that!” 

“You weren’t using it either and if the problem is you holding a brick I can let you hold my hand. Promise you it can do just as much damage.” 

His frown deepens “Are you fucking threatening me?” 

Oh shit, that landed wrong. 

“No, man! That’s not what I meant,” I try to tell him, but he’s already on his merry way back to the sea of trees, so I quicken my pace “It’s just propaganda for the next time you need some help defeating rapists or whatever.” 

“I don’t need or want your elleged help” he actually gestures quotes when he says the word help and then starts enumerating “you didn’t know what you were doing, you ruined my fucking plan and beyond that already pretty harrowing shitstorm, you made me roll with your puntches, the puntches of someone that DIDN’T KNOW WHAT THEY WHERE GODDANM FUCKING DOING! UUUUHRGH!” 

Then, he turns around, face scrunched up “You know what? We don’t have the time for this. Classes start in three minutes,” he reaches out and grabs my hand “and I’m not going to take the blame for us being late on our first fucking day, so buckle up Board Boy, we are running out of here.” 

And true to his word, Karkat started dragging me through the trees, but I couldn’t look at our surroundings because the fucker was holding my hand. He was holding my hand like we were best friends since dipper age, with an iron tight grip that made me wonder if he was ever going to let go. I couldn’t hold his hand back, though. Couldn’t even grip his thumb. Shit was completely one sided, sudden, uncalled for, but gentle and obvious, it never caught me by surprise.

I looked at our hands and the scene from Toby and Robert popped back inside my head. My face started to feel warm all over. What if someone saw us? 

We exited the forest but there was no one at the courtyard, so Karkat just kept dragging us. When we finally got to our floor he released my hand and started walking to 412. 

“See ya’ never, Board Boy.” 

“Hey,” I call out. He turns “Name is Dave.” 

He snickers “Just as stupid and plain as the owner.” 

“The only plain thing I own is your ass, after I finish pounding it.” 

Karkats face goes red like a tomato. He gives me very sound “FUCK OFF!” and absconds to his own class. I hear someone tell him he just got owned and he just tells them to take care of their own life. When I turn the color is drained from my face. Rose is there with crossed arms and a wolvish grin. 

She totally heard that and knowing how she is, I’m never going to hear the end of it. 

Stepping into the class I feel like I just reached a safespace in a game of tag. We sit on the places we marked earlier and now Jade is here with us too. Rose starts telling them what she saw, but even if she’s talking about me, I can’t possibly care. 

Ever since Karkat dropped my hand there’s been this ghost sensation on it. A sort of imprint in the exact place he grabbed. I can feel his hand there, the warmth, the grip, the exact shape and it doesn’t fade, no matter how much I touch over the spot or rub on it. 

Though if I am to be honest, I don’t even know if I want to stop feeling it at all.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Filler of daily life. 
> 
> People being people and mocking people.
    
    
    "Hey, Dave, ain't that Karkat's food?"
    
    I look down at the microwavable that I'm eating and think about how it just showed up at my locker when I came over. It was sealed, so the only way it could be poisoned was of the factory put it there by themselves.
    
    "No" I tell John, scooping another broccoli to chew on.
    
    "He has one that is quite similar."
    
    "He's just bullshiting us, guys. It's obviously the same one, see" Jade shows the top to John and Rose.
    
    "If he gave me, it's mine. Simple."
    
    "Dave-" Rose starts but stops, mulling over her words before speaking again "maybe you should consider that, though pointedly not giving you the joy of his presence and avoiding your gaze at all costs, Karkat might be flirting with you."
    
    I think about it for all of a millisecond before giving her an answer.
    
    "Yeah, nah."
    
    It actually goes back to last week, when I forgot to bring my food and ditched my friends so they wouldn't give me pity food. Turns out that I bumped into Karkat, lockpicking a classroom and acting sneaky and suspicious, so obviously I followed him inside. He yelped when he saw me and closed the door behind us, pushing me to the end of the classroom.
    
    "What the fuck do you think you're doing?" 
    
    "Dude, you're the one doing shady shit. Why would you pick your own class?"
    
    He looks at me with the same old scorn of usual, sitting in his own chair and grabbing his food out of his backpack.
    
    "None of your fuckick business."
    
    We stand in silence for a moment before a I grin. 
    
    "You forgot to grab your food didn't you?" I jab.
    
    He looks angrier, but also kind of embarrassed.
    
    "Fuck off."
    
    Then, my traitorous stomach grumbles and I feel like he just caught me naked in the locker room. My face heats up enough to redden my ears.
    
    He tosses me a combo of pumpkin with meat and rice.
    
    "What's this for?"
    
    "It's the bribe I can offer you to keep your incessant trap shut about this. I can't have anyone knowing I can pick locks, idiot."
    
    So it's not really because of pity. Maybe he didn't hear my stomach at all. He doesn't look phased or overly empathetic so maybe there's hope.
    
    "Yeah, sure, but why?"
    
    "People don't really look people with that skill with good eyes."
    
    "No, dude, why do you know how to lockpick stuff? Not that it's not a useful skill to have, I would like to learn how to pick a lock, just never really got to it."
    
    He looks away, but doesn't scowl more then usual "It's personal."
    
    Wow. Okay. He didn't tell me to fuck off and that sounded mournful as shit. Time to truly back right off, then.
    
    Every day since then,  I open my locker to a microwavable of HiveWave with an assortment of flavors different than the ones I had the previous day. It's an honestly pretty sweet deal. I've been eating better at school during lunch than at home at any given hour.
    
    Today it's broccoli, rice and pork chops. Yesterday was spaghetti with  soy meatballs. I don't get the vibe with the alternative shit on the food but I ain't gonna complain about free food.
    
    I just hope I get a lasagna before his stock ends and I have to go back to eating Doritos and chicken nuggets.
    
    "Dave, why are you taking Karkat's food? He's an asshole!"
    
    "Jade, would you deny free food? Seriously? Not asking for a friend, I genuinely need to know. Think about free food. It's free fucking food."
    
    "I would if it came from him! He's an asshole and a mean person for no reason. Even if he didn't poison it how can you tell he didn't spit on it or something?"
    
    I grab the top of the container and shake it "It's sealed, Jade." Then I stab another broccoli and eat it unashemed.
    
    "Not to say you are wrong, but you do sound like you're defending him" Rose comments.
    
    Why is everyone on my case about eating this? It's not even a gift, it's bribe, but if I said that this shit would escalate until it got out of control.
    
    "No, no, Jade is right that he's a raging asshole" I answer her " but I'm not discrediting good food because it came from a dubious source. You're with me on that, right John?" 
    
    John finishes swallowing a cookie and crumpling his paper bag before joining in on the conversation.
    
    "Karkat is not actually that bad. I'd take food from him."
    
    "What do you mean 'Karkat is not that bad'?  He's so mean and stupid!"
    
    "That's just how trolls are."
    
    Rose looks at him with a raised eyebrow and I turn my face to really look at him. John, are you xenophobic?
    
    "Dude."
    
    "John, that is not okay" She adds.
    
    "What? Why are you guys looking at me like that?"
    
    "That was straight out xenophobic, bro."
    
    "Oooh. No I didn't mean it like that. It's just that even though they can not be, trolls are a war race so their interactions are more brutal, even on a friendly basis. Karkat is actually very friendly compared to some of his friends. Have any of you ever tried to talk to Vriska, or Terezi, or blergh Eridan?"
    
    "Eridan doesn't deserve the oxygen he consumes."
    
    I suck in a breath through gritted teeth, cause if Rose is being that brutal about it, this Eridan guy can't be good news.
    
    "What's so bad about him?" Jade asks echoing my own doubts.
    
    "He's an entitled rich Alpha Troll supremacist."
    
    Oh. Yeah. Cut that guy's oxygen supply, shit shouldn't apply, there's none here that could deny or shy from the beating we should give to this guy.
    
    I should write that down.
    
    "A supremacist! I wish I could bring my rifle and shoot him in the head. Alpha supremacists are gross and make all of us Alphas look bad." Jade is tense. She's never even seen the guy and already looks like she'd be totally down to start a homicidal mission on him. Can't blame her. 
    
    "Alright. We know why Eridan is an ass, what's so wrong with Terezi or Vriska?" I ask.
    
    "Nothing if compared to Eridan, really," but then John seems to remember something to add "it's not as bad, but I think Vriska may be cleptomainiac and Terezi is crazy about solving some big mystery. The only reason she doesn't comit a murder herself it's because she'd have no fun finding the culprit."
    I nod with a smile halfway through my last pork chop. That does sound like Terezi for what I've talked to her so far.
    
    "If I kill Eridan I'll make sure to leave some clues to feed Terezi's Sherlockian impulses" Rose jokes. Or half jokes. I'm not sure. Wouldn't doubt her, though.
    
    "But Karkat is not nearly as bad as them, even if he's mean most of the time. He just doesn't know how to be nice, so he does nice things and calls you an idiot from begining to end."
    
    "Huh. By John's own analysis Karkat is obviously afraid of creating an intimate bond with anyone, but he craves it, so he does nice things to bring people closer, but insults them so to keep said people at arm's length."
    
    "Rose, c'mon, the guy is not even here. Stop psychoanalysing him behind his back."
    
    "Would you rather have me read you instead?" 
    
    "Like that would be any news. You've used your witch magic shit on my business countless times. I can't even see how you get any joy out of it anymore. I'm the dead horse of your psychologist shtick, Rose, just let me die."
    
    "Yeah, Rose, leave him alone" thanks man, knew I could count on you "he just wants to eat his boyfriends broccoli in peace."
    
    I will remember this betrayal, Egbert. 


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Heat. 
> 
> Masturbation with angst and a zucchini.

Ever since Bro took me to the doctor to get suppressants nothing has changed so I guess that must mean they’re working. I sure as fuck hope that's the case, cause if they just up and fail me suddenly, shit is gonna be a whole other level of bad.

Everything’s already in my bag which means I’m ready to go but I just have this awful sensation crawling under my skin. It’s like an electric current running from the center of my chest to the very tip of my fingers. It gets everything there super sensitive to any kind of touch. It’s even making me itchy and I just can’t scratch it off! Could this be a collateral effect? Is this normal?

Should I go to school?

I rise from my desk chair and go hunt down a different pair of shoes from the ones I was wearing yesterday, trying to keep the motions going cause maybe I'm just being paranoid, but when I kneel close to my bed to see if I forgot them there or not, a dizziness knocks me sideways and I start feeling ice cold around my hands and toes and super hot in the middle. I lift myself from the ground and go as far as sitting but when I try to stand my knees fail.

Well...shit.

The lightning starts to worsen growing to fire on my skin, a painful fire that keeps chafing against everything. I need to get rid of these clothes, this shit is rubbing against my nipples and it feels like I'm running them through a cheese grater. I need this pain to stop. Why am I so sensitive? It _hurts._

I get rid of my shirt and place my shades back on the cinder block table beside my bed, grabbing the tip of my thick red card suit comforter and wrapping myself in it.

Fuck it. There’s no way I’m going to school like this.

I start to sweat, feverish and breathless. My heart feels like it’s being hit hard, all punching bag style and my chest is heavy. My pants are tight on my crotch and around my thighs, but they also provide me warmth in places the comforter can’t reach so fuck it, imma keep'em. When the fuck did I get hard, though?

I feel weak and dizzy, like there’s not enough air in my head.

And I’m alone. I’m so fucking alone and I can’t do anything or go anywhere. 

_Mate can fix_ rings in my head. What mate? Who’s saying that?

Then, it’s not only loneliness, it's emptiness too. I feel something liquid run out and down my ass cheek. Then another drop followed by another. They rub my things together with almost no friction and are probably making a mess of my pant’s. Great. Awesome. 

_Nest safe. Nest good._ My bed. I have to get to my bed.

When I position myself to climb up into my bed my thighs expand. It’s like the fucking pants are made of looped-around rubber bands. They make me feel like my legs are going to implode, so I shimmy out of them and go butt naked. Who the fuck knows when my boxers were gonna make me want to never have been born? Might as well get rid of them now.

Releasing lil Davey to air after letting him imprisoned in such a desperate state for so long almost makes me cum by the sheer breeze that ghostly strokes me, but I need to get these covers all around me before I can even think of that. With how rock-hard I am the only reason I know there’s enough blood on my actual head is because I can feel it running around and heating every miserable inch of my cheeks, neck and chest. The problem is that there isn’t enough for the rest of me!

My hands are dead and my feet feel as if they had been frozen solid, even from inside my socks. Even my nipples are so cold that they could cut through diamonds. The only warm parts are my face and crotch and holy fuck, does my dick hurt.

Suddenly, it’s not just my dick anymore. My insides expand and it’s useless to clench my asshole, because the more I do, the more my guts coil desperately around the emptiness. I need something. _Anything_. Inside of me. Oh my God.

I cover my middle with the comforter, leaving my dick to bob outside of it. With my arms underneath the soft warmth I wrap one hand around my dick and hook a single finger on my hole, but right away I understand that’s going to be laughably inefficient. I won’t take care of anything with a single finger with how loose I already am.

It does feel good when I grab my own dick, both because it’s warm and my hands are cold but also because I have been needing friction there for almost a whole 5 to 10 minutes. My asshole is so fucking drentched that I bet I could get my whole fist stuck in there and with how deperate I am, I just might try. I just might try because even with two fingers It’s still not enough. I can’t reach where I need and the stretch is not even close to what I want.

My door clicks open and before I think better about it, my left hand flies under my pillow to grab the shurikens. When ajar, I throw them with practiced precision right at the moment Bro shows his nose.

It’s almost like he smells the metal coming his way.

He dodges back and I use that time to cover anything embarrassing from view which is to say… well… everything. I cocoon on the comforter, pulling even my feet inside.

Bro opens the rest of the door and straight up frowns, putting his hand in a fist under his nose and whispering a disgusted “Holy fuck.” He looks around the room, looking for something and stops looking when he finds the blister beside my keyboard.

“What were the side effects?”

I stay quiet for a moment, trying to absorb what he is asking and convincing myself to not touch anything indecent while he’s still here. Just leave, already!

“Dave. Side effects.”

The words were stiff and precise. They made me think he was mad, even if I logically knew he was just trying to get me talking. It made me scared and things were already hurting. I couldn’t blink back tears anymore and my voice was shaky when I tried to speak. It sounded like I was choking. And the moment I tried to breathe to steel my voice sounded as if I was drowning.

Bro crouched looking me in the eyes. I could see myself reflected in his shades, but only my eyes. Blotchy and wet and pathetic. I looked away.

“I need to call your doc and tell him the drugs didn’t work, but he’s gonna wanna know why to recommend something better. Help me out. Side effects, Dave.”

I swallow and blink hard, nodding so he knows I heard him. 

“D- Di..a- rre..hea.”

“When did it start?”

“Ssatur- day.”

“Are you still having it?”

I shake my head. Haven’t felt the need to sit on the toilet all morning.

“When did it end?”

I swallow hard again, trying to make my voice come out more even.

“Yester _day_ ” I tell him, but my voice breaks before I can end the word, a sharp electric spike running all around my dirty bits and triggering a yelp reflex I didn’t even know I had.

This is so fucking embarrassing! Why did it have to happen now of all times? Why did any of this have to happen now? I took the fucking suppressants exactly like recommended, never missed the mark, not even by the minute. I was not supposed to be feeling or looking or being this useless and pathetic.

He nods, face hardened in a perfect expressionless expression. I don’t know if it makes me feel better or worse to not know how he really feels about how weak I look, but if it bothers him or not, I don’t think I’ll ever be able to tell.

Bro fishes his phone from his back pocket and after messing with it single-handedly for a while, my own phone rings. He stands, tosses the blister in the trash bin beside my computer and pockets his phone back.

“I suggest you order somewhere with same day shipping” he says, cryptic, before leaving my bedroom. The door is still open and I can see him fiddling with something on the fridge. I wish he would just close the fucking door so I can be horny and miserable in peace.

I slide one of my hands down to touch at the entrance again. Fuck. I’m so loose. Why am I even that loose? I don’t even masturbate through the back end so much. Is this how big an Alpha is supposed to be? Holy fuck- and the knot is going to be even bigger. Why does my hornyness has to go hand in hand with my capacity to not be a week whiny wimp. 

When I realized what I was doing my fingers had already started a slick rhythm inside me. My cock went flaccid from neglect, the poor guy, but with the levels of frustration I was feeling despite every attempt to soothe this aching, I was the one in need to deflate, but I just couldn’t. I couldn’t stop feeling horny and hurt and lonely and all I wanted was for it to end.

I heard the footsteps before I saw him - once in my life - but it was hard to understand what he was holding before he threw the bundle of stuff on the bed.

It was a zucchini and a pack of condoms.

“Don’t have too much fun all at once. I’m not coming back to give you any more.”

With that, he finally closed the door, enveloping me and my nest in sweet-sweet darkness once again.

Wait. A zucchini and a pack of condoms. Oh my sweet shiting Jesus. Am I supposed to masturbate with _that_? Nonononononononononono. Why? WHY? But on another hand it does look like it’s gonna fit perfectly. No. No. What am I thinking? What if that shit breaks inside of me and Bro has to take me heating into a doctor to remove the broken piece that got stuck inside? That would be the end of all my pride as a person. I’d never be able to show my face in public or look people in the eye ever again. It does look strangely anatomic, though, like, just phallic enough to maybe slide out with my slick if it does get damaged. No. No. I have some pride. I’m not masturbating with a zucchini, no matter how oblong and phallic and smooth and...Oh my God, I’m seriously considering this.

My asshole has another spike, and more slick starts running down my thighs. You know what? Fuck it. I’m doing it ironically. I bet I can do it with a straight face either.

I grab de zucchini and two condoms - one for my cock and one for the zucchini cause if things get wonky I can pull whatever is in me by the base of the condom - and wet the tip of it on the slick that just ran down. My asshole clenches around nothing, eager to meet whatever’s on it’s merry way there.

The tip of the zucchini goes inside and it’s right out of the bat so much better than my fingers could have even been. It stretches the entrance wide and I can press around it without feeling any give. I breach my hole a couple more times, just to feel the girth and finally get rid of this incessant need of squeezing something inside.

Then I put it in deeper and it fills me _so good_. I needed that so absurdly bad that when it goes inside, a moan gets ripped from the depths of my chest. It’s low, loud, debauched and filed with absolutely no fucks to give. Yeah, I'm not doing this with a straight face.

At least it was against the mattress.

I start to fuck myself with the zucchini, pounding my hips down on it and trying my best to keep my own moaning muffled on the mattress.

Fuck. It just feels so good and reaches me so much deeper than my fingers and presses my prostate at just the right angle. I can't stop crying and whining on my sheets. At some point I hear how loud I am, and bite down on the bed sheets to try to keep things in. Bro doesn't deserve to hear this. God, I must be sounding like a fucking porn star but I can't help it. Everything feels like too much, too intense and it punches my voice out of my lungs and through my gritted teeth.

_Alpha. Alpha, I'm close._

I'm so close and getting closer by the second, but when I verge at the pit of my release, it's like I'm being held there by my throat by a chafing rope. I want to fall, but the knoose around my neck is going to let me die hanging before letting me fall.

_AlphaAlphaAlpha, please._

_Please_ , just let me fucking cum.

_Alpha-_

THERE IS NO ALPHA! Or Beta. Or Omega. Or anyone! Please just let me out of this misery.

Inside of my head I hear a long, drawn out wail. Tears spill faster and more abundant from my eyes, running down my nose and wetting my sheets.

I pump faster, trying to get there, and it's like the rope that was holding me at the edge by the neck snaps, sending me down into the depths with a sick twist. I never got away from the wall, so my back gets scratched all the way to the bottom.

I cum, but I don't find satisfaction. I find pain. Physical, mental and emotional. The condom is full, the zucchini is intact - though drenched - and my bed looks like the face of a weeping ghost with two wet dots for eyes, one for nose and a bunched up piece of wet fabric for a mouth.

The whole thing was pointedly miserable, but the exhaustion gets the best of me in the end. Half awake, half asleep, I can vaguely feel the zucchini running out of me. I look down in that direction and remember that Bro sent something to me.

Ack! My ass hurts so much, my head feels like it’s filled with cotton and my eyes feel puffy from crying like a stupid baby. Whatever it is, I can check when I wake up. 

Sleep comes after the pain of the whole thing subsides. It's cold and accompanied by a stupid wish to cuddle that makes no sense. I hug myself, trying to fool whatever is in my head whispering that whiny, desperate wail, but the crying doesn’t end. Instead, it makes me feel worse. Weak, alone and undesirable.


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Heat.
> 
> Dildo party gone south fast.
> 
> Almost Rape Warning (It doens't happen, but it almost does and the angst is still there).

When I open my eyes it’s like the world is rolling around at minus 1.5 speed but my stomach seems to not have gotten the memo and grumbles like I haven't eaten for days which is a dubious assumption to be made. In the end my stomach wins the very solid argument we were having about letting me sleep for another 3 hours. I need to eat.

From where I am my food stash is perfectly visible and so is the window and the darkness beyond the curtains. How long have I actually been asleep? 

I sit, looking down at the mess between my legs. I don’t want to deal with this, but it’s going to be an even bigger problem if I don’t, so I stick my hand inside the cinder block closest to my bed and pull a roll of toilet paper from inside.

What are you judging me for? It’s a great place to hide your jerk-off paper. 

I clean the mess and manage to walk to the boxes tucked on the furthest corner of my room. It’s woozy and I sure as fuck look like a drunkass hobo but I’m sure there’s a pack of instant noodles here somewhere which make it totally worth it. I can eat that if I just ditch whatever there’s on the microwave onto the sink.

Back on the bed - cause soon enough I started to get cold again - I grab my phone to check the time and see what I missed on the group chat my class made. It's not as late as I had initially thought, it's just cloudy as fuck. Notifications made me have a new priority as soon as I saw them.

300 bucks on my bank account from TuringTestified. 

Bro gave me money??? He did tell me to buy something with same day shipping which means he wasn’t thinking about food cause if that was the case he wouldn’t have said that.

I look at the zucchini and the pack of condoms.

I know what this money is for… Welp, at least I’ll be able to throw the zucchini out, now, so it’s not so bad - even if it still makes me want to curl up in a hole and puff out of existence.

My google search leads me to some different places and more often than not I see smuppets on the pages I browse.

I really didn't have any wish to know where Bro got all of those. I WILL ignore the fact my house if crawling with sex shop merch and Bro still decided the zucchini was a better cock replacement. Weirdly enough, I don't know if I should be thankful or grossed out.

The options go far and wide on these places - I have to admit. Things to put inside yourself, things to put yourself inside, things that do the job hands free, things you have all the manual control you may ever want, things to link with your phone, things that have controllers, things that are rechargeable, things that take batteries, things you can choose the color, things that the color is fixed, things with small sizes, things with big sizes, things for trolls, things for humans, things for trolls and humans, things to use alone, things to… not use alone.

There are just so many things!

It didn't strike me then that it was the middle of the day and the doorman only came in to work around noon.

I chose the thing that would be the most useful and require the least possible maintenance. Having to go up on wobbly legs, butt naked and feverish all the way to the bathroom at the end of the hall while risking bumping into my Bro sounded like a no go.

On the other hand, condoms are a big part of not having to clean stuff frequently and Bro said he'd not give me any more… I should add a packet… or a box.

Aaaand there's still enough dough to order from Domino's. Though I should probably resupply my stash, I'm running low on mac n' cheese, I could buy some AJ cartoons - they don't taste so fresh, but they last longer out of the fridge - and I could… oh.

Browsing the supermarket app I found the same microwavable Karkat always gives me.

Wow. They are expensive. And some are even more expensive than others. How does this guy just keeps giving them to me? It's been, what? Three months? I thought this shit would cost something like 9,99 not 30!

If he's been putting one of those a day in my locker, 5 days a week, 4 weeks a month for three straight months that sums up to… 1800 bucks worth of food.

I can't fucking believe this. How could I not have made the math earlier?

Now… now he… he must think… fuck. Fuck! I have to… do something, but there's no way I'm making that much money. Even if I told him to stop right now I wouldn't be able to make that much money until the end of the year.

My stomach hurts and my hunger grows.

Despite saying that, god, I miss the microwaveables. The noodles will have to do for today, though.

The order is set, the doorman will ring me and I'll just ask Bro to pick it up when he comes back from wherever he is. Now I just have to heat up some water, put it in here, wait three minutes and I'll be ready to sleep for another 48 hours or until my body starts crying out for the zucchini again.

The true question is, how do I get from here to the kitchen? Anything that I put on chafes my nipples or constricts my thighs. I can't wear anything other than this blanket and if I just go bare there's a chance I'll get cold, and an even more awful chance that Bro is gonna show up and see me in all my birthday suit glory.

Should I take the blanket?

…

I'll just take the blanket. As long as I can keep it out of the ground I'm not gonna get my bedding dirty.

I stand on wobbly legs, locking my knees in place to be able to stand, then I grab the sheets.

Ah. Warm. Cozy.

I open the door slowly since I don't want to disturb Bro in case he's still in the house, even though I don't think he is. He comes and goes on a whim and I never know if he's around unless he wants me to know.

One step after the other and I make it to the kitchen without many issues, then I take the smuppets from the microwave and dump them into the sink with the laundry.

I find my mug and fill it with water, then put it to heat while I read the noodles instructions for the thousand time. At least I got the spicy one. I hadn't even checked what I got up until now.

The class group doesn't seem to have gotten into too much activity, but I did pick up that there's physics homework for Friday. Did Bro remember to call the school and tell them why I didn't show up? I don't think so, and I'm pretty sure you're supposed to when you're taking heat days.

Eh. I'll just ask Rose. I'm sure she knows how this works.

The food gets done and I inhale it - cause chewing takes too much time and I want to go back to my bed. The chanting of _nest, nest, nest, nest_ are making my head ache. I wish I had gotten my shades before I left the bedroom. The kitchen is just too fucking bright.

I go back to bed and roll around for a while, either too hot or too cold. My dick starts straining and my ass is producing enough slick to drown a man, but I ignore them with all my might. Tears start welling in my eyes the more I ignore it but if I go for it, it's just going to be like last time.

I’m not doing it.

It's gonna hurt. And it's gonna give me release but it's still gonna hurt and I'll just feel miserable and alone right after.

I don't want to feel like that. I don't want to be this helpless.

Then, someone rings the bell.

Definitely not Bro. He never leaves without his keys and if that was the case he wouldn't ring the bell. He'd text me.

Who the fuck is this? And why couldn't they have picked any other time to be inconvenient? This is the worst situation I could picture.

I crawl out of my room - not literally, but almost - look through the door hole and see a delivery guy. Wait. Wasn't the doorman supposed to be downstairs?

My phone points to being only 4 instead of 6 p.m.

But he was supposed to be here later. This delivery guy.

"Excuse me! Delivery for... Strider."

Shit. Shit. Shit. I need to answer or the package will leave and I’m gonna have to pay the delivery again.

"Right. And you're?"

"Logistics incorporated. L.inc. I need you to sign you got your package, sir."

Fuck. Fuck! Shit. Titty shit sprinkles! Fucking fuck! What do I do? What do I do? I don't know his gender and if he's an alpha and I open this door this guy is dead and I'm doomed. Bro is gonna slice him in half and my cock along with him.

"Just leave it by the door and slide the paper underneath."

Great. Now this guy thinks I have social anxiety or something like that. Okay. Okay. It's still better than the alternative.

The paper peaks through the gap and I grab it to sign. When I slide it back, the sound on the other side of the door goes suspiciously quiet, so I look through the door hole again.

At first he has his back turned to me, but as he slowly turns around I can see his eyes. Dark. Milky black like tar.

Shit. Shit. So much shit! Fuck.

Feral alpha a door away from me. I can hear him breathing heavily on the other side. How did this happen? I wasn't rubbing myself against the paper or something stupid like that! How did he pick up my scent? I give a step back with full intent of abandoning everything and just rushing back to my bed, but my knees buckle and I fall on my ass.

He knocks on the door with some intent.

"Sir. You need to get your package."

"J-just leave it there. I'll get it soon."

"Sir, I can't leave the package alone. What if it gets stolen?"

"You delivered it. I signed it. The responsibility for theft is mine now. You can go."

PLEASE leave. _Please_.

It's a door. It's a door that the more I look at it, makes me wonder if it ain't made of cardboard. He could break it. What if he breaks it?

Bro isn't home, my knees are useless, I can barely stand and this back and forth with my body temperature is making me weak.

If this guy steps foot in here, I run for the kitchen and open the fridge in this fucker. But what if I do that and he dies? The swords in there are sharp as shit. Then I'm gonna be sent to jail! But that’s self defense, right? If i did that it would be a super unproportional reaction, though.

Call the cops? No. Even if I used my phone by the time the cops arrived he'd already have… oh god.

I don't know what to do and all I have between me and him is a fucking cardboard shitty ass door.

Did he leave, though?

I can't hear him, so I come closer to the door and place my ear against it to make sure. And sure enough, I couldn't listen to him.

I put my head against the door, trying to will my dizziness away and clutching the blanket even tighter around me.

So much for keeping the bedding clean and now it's the one thing between my watery cheeks and the cold hard floor.

How did I come to this? Bro is right. Fighting your problems over is so much easier. The stakes are there. You know you're gonna have a broken nose or a twisted ankle or a sprained wrist or even a broken arm of things get really ugly, but all those things heal. 

I don't know the stakes here. I just know they are much bigger than a broken nose.

I need to get that package, so with a deep breath I rise and look through the hole one last time to check if he did what I told him.

He didn’t. The package is nowhere to be seen and neither is the motherfucking delivery guy. My money. 200 bucks plus shipping. Nononono. Bro is going to kill me.

I open the door with a single hand, the other holding the blanket in place. Maybe he just put it out of my field of vision, right?

It’s not that I was wrong on the account, more on the detail. Because he was there too, holding the package up to me all too gently. A toothy smile and tar like eyes that I could see my reflection on. 

This guy was a complete goner. Nothing I could say to him would reach his brain. And his scent was spreading fast around me. I couldn’t ignore it. The door wasn’t there anymore.

The alpha scent made every part of me shake to the core with a weird mix of hornyness and worry. I could feel my slick running down my thighs and a too familiar pain originated from not being able to clench around anything increasing exponentially around my gut. 

My vision starts to get blurry and I can’t say for sure if it’s because my eyes are watering or because my fever is making me hallucinate, but I feel his cold hand slipping around my cheek to hook around my nape and bring me forward, to kiss.

Vomit starts rising up on my throat.

I close my eyes, slap his hand and push him away, but he holds my wrist right when I'm bringing it back. If I use my other hand he’s going to see me naked. Shit. Just get the fuck off, already!

“You need help, sir.”

_Yes._

But not yours!

_Alpha._

Not this one! Get out of my head.

_Alpha. Nest. Mate. Good._

My legs give out. I one-hundred percent can’t feel any strength from my knees. They give up on me faster than John can pick up on a Nick Cage reference and I’m left with a fully grown feral alpha right in between my very naked legs.

I tear rolls out of the corner of my eye.

Bro was right. I shouldn’t have hid the ring. I should have found someone. I should have fought more people by now. I should have trained harder. I should be able to kick this guy’s ass!

“You’re so cute.”

Don’t want to be cute. Don’t want you to look at me. Don't look at me.

I hold his shirt trying to push him off of me, but my arms are weak and I end up holding him more than pushing him. I think about screaming for help but it’s no guarantee anyone will hear me and if they do, they might not help. They might just ignore it.

I wish Karkat was here. He never ignores it. Never once.

He starts touching my skin, running his hands over my ribcage and hips and the closer he gets to my cock the more I start to pre, my body betraying me at every turn. The closer he gets to my nether regions the more I shake my head in denial, but the headache and the dizziness keeps me from doing it for long.

_Mate._

I don’t want it. Stop.

My guts squirm with the finger that starts to circle my rim. I find my voice “Don’t,” but it sounds like I’m delusional. I sound delusional to myself.

I can’t see anything clearly, but a tall shadow covers the light. The collar of the guy gets pulled and once he’s lifted, I feel cold.

What happened?

The sounds of things being broken fills the room and I recognize the sound of someone getting a broken nose right away. Uuuuh, that’s gonna hurt. But that means Bro is home.

I’m just gonna cover up and rest my head for a while. 

Just for a little while.


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Karkat gives the general rundown of highschool politics and invites Dave to join the Mathematics club.

Rose is an awesome friend, but I should have picked someone more succinct to explain to me the historical intricacies of HP Lovecraft for the paper that Snowoman asked us to do. It's at least half of my English grades and I missed that whole thing because of my ass backwards heat.

"Isn't it extraordinary how he managed to study and describe a submarine? He even described things from a Nazi perspective! And the descend into madness of the little crew that was allowed alive-"

At some point I just tuned it out. 

How am I to do this if I don't even know what I'm being graded for? Is it grammar? Do I get a worse or better grade if I write less than 5 pages? Were the stories chosen on a gamble or did people pick them? Does this thing have to be read in front of the whole class afterwards or do we just deliver it to her?

I've only known most of these guys for three months or so. What if I fumble on my words and they think I'm dumb? Up until school started and I heard everyone call me stoic I didn't even know how to pronounce stoic.

What if I do that in front of everyone and then no one wants to pair up with me for future group projects? There are ridiculously harder words than fucking 'stoic' on every Lovecraft tale I've ever read.

"Dave?"

I look up from the table, focusing back on Rose "What?"

"Look, if you weren't going to pay attention in the first place, then why did you ask for my help?"

"Who said I wasn't paying attention, cause that person is a liar and they deserve to get cast out of our privy social circle. I'm all ears and eyes and hands and ass for everything you're up and explaining in such detail that I'm almost missing the point if the whole point is to be brief about it, but like I said, I'm almost-"

"-SHUTTING THE FUCK UP, RIGHT?" Karkat suddenly says from right behind me. 

Where did this motherfucker pop out of and how did he manage to sneak up on me of all people?

"Where the fuck did you pop out of?"

"Where the fuck did *you* crawl out of? You look like someone took a dump on your face and smeared it all over it, like some twisted understanding of the whole point of what beauty products are supposed to do."

I was in the hospital, asshole. What is your excuse? No. I can't say that. don't want anyone to know why I didn't come to school. It's none of Karkat's business and I don't want to get Rose worried.

The answer I give is a weak one "Wow. I must be looking like you, then."

"Usually, I would just answer something meaner, but you're genuinely looking sick."

"You know I can take that both ways, right?"

"I MEANT ILL! DISEASED! For fuck sakes," he said once and then repeated, just for good measure... I think "for fuck sakes, you skipped school for three days!"

Karkat lowered his voice and bent down a little in his best impression of what I think should have been a whisper, "Are you selling drugs or something?"

Holy shit.

This is golden. This is so far out from anything that actually happened. If what actually happened is Florida, Karkat's assumptions are all the way up in California, strolling carelessly on them beaches.

I'm so incredulous it reaches my funny brain and from my perfect poker face comes out an ugly, nosey snort that morphs my whole face into a smile followed by a laughter so loud and unhinged, Rose would call it a fucking guffaw.

I try to stop but I just can't, and so I keep laughing and laughing until there's no more air on me.

When I open my eyes, Karkat is really red in the face and stiff like a beanpole. Rose is mesmerized. I look at her with a smirk still plastered on my face, pointing at Karkat with my thumb.

"What? Me being a drug dealer sounds hilarious! I'd be more of a user than a dealer, dude. Just look at me."

"It would be really out of character for Dave to take an active roll, much more in business transactions."

"What the fuck do you mean by that?" I question her.

I thought you were on my side here, Rose.

"Whenever there's a group project, you never pick the group, you never present, and you always do what I tell you to. Exclusively.

In sports, you never elect yourself as captain, even if more often than not, you are better at the sport than the captain we do elect.

Do not understand my commentary wrong. You are a valuable team member, a great researcher, an amazing problem solver.

You just never seem to take the first step at any point. That's all I'm saying."

I'm confused. Should I feel valued or offended?

"None of that fucking matters. It's not why I'm here anyway," Karkat cuts, waving the topic off , "Egbert said he had to leave earlier than his usual and since the fucker knew I was gonna be stuck inside these rotten walls with a couple numberfuckers for a little longer he asked me to drop this off."

He searches his bag a little and takes a folder with my name written in blue.

What heathen would write my name in blue? John would never do such a thing. It does look somewhat official, so maybe a teacher. Blue and black look like the only pens they carry around.

"These are your homeworks with extended periods of time to deliver. One from each teacher. Oh! And there's something for you inside your locker."

Rose and I exchange a look. Don't look at me like that, I don't know what it is either. Might as well be a bomb for all I know.

"Karkat, are you in the mathematics team?" Rose asks.

"What?" He asks, stopping right before leaving.

"You said you would be stuck with a couple of - and I quote - number fuckers. Are you in the mathematics team?"

He looks away, frown deep in his features "I need the fucking extra credit to go to a descent college, and since I'm way less atlethic then this fuck-o, I might as well try to exercise my thinkpan. We study a lot about investments and we are thinking about starting a fund for the team, so we don't have to ask for money for parents or the fucking school to go to tournaments and meetings and shit like that."

"That's actually really cool. An extracurricular that lets you get your hands on the dough? Sign me up."

"I would fucking love to, Strider. But, unfortunately, I can't."

"Why not?" Rose asks.

Karkat's anger makes him go full red on the upper part of his face. I can almost smell the fumes coming out of his ears. Through gritted teeth he managed to growl the answer.

"Because it's an alpha-only elective."

Rose speaks before I can, but says exactly what I was thinking.

"They can't do that. That's against the law."

"According to Terezi, it technically isn't. Not in the way they made it, because it's not explicit. It doesn’t make it any less fucking infuriating."

"What did they do to cover it up?"

"You know the controlled environment of classrooms?"

She nods.

"It's the complete opposite. I swear that the fucking room gets more pheromones than the fucking basketball court after they start using time-outs with 5 minutes to the end of the game."

Holy fuck. That sounds like something straight out of an anime.

He gets closer.

"One time, Sollux and Eridan were at each other's throats already. Half the room was in with Eridan and the other with Sollux. They were showing teeth, claws, the room smelled of anger and murderous intent. They both had already gone feral and no one was doing anything to stop it.

They jumped at each other and started kicking and snarling and punching and spitting. There was blood everywhere.

I couldn't stop it alone, so I went to get help. It was the only time I ever asked Jade for anything.

She took Sollux to a corner and I took Eridan to the other. Obviously the meeting was ruined much like their fucking faces after that stupid pitch tango."

"Why not just bring an Omega to the room? Even just one person might be enough" Rose suggests.

"According to everyone else it's because I would be disturbing the fucking order of things. They're not wrong. What they don't see is that that's exactly what I want to do.

You two just showed up this year, right?"

"Yeah. What about it?" I ask.

"I was here during Freshman year too and I'm this close to being electable to join the Student Council. If I can pull inclusion in one of the most exclusive electives of the whole school, they're definitely gonna let me join. You know how that would look on my college enrollment? I could go to Yale for something like that!"

"If you're aiming high, why not Harvard?"

"Do I look like fucking Midas to you, Lalonde? If I went to Harvard I'd be nothing more than a strutting joke."

"Yeah. Okay. No one cares. You were trying to say something about the council of snotty duffuses or something…"

"Jokes on you. They have enough power to keep you from graduating high school. They also have power to suspend and expel students. They are also the only students in the entire school allowed to walk around armed and use brute force on other students.

They fund events, competitions and other things. The only person who can take a Student Council member from the board is the Headmaster. Not even teachers can talk back to them."

"That sounds like a not well thought out amount of power to bestow upon students."

"Agreed. What the hell do these guys even do all day?" I ask.

"Study. Like us. They also punish major cases of sexual assault in school grounds when they get reported."

"That kind of thing should be handed over to the police," Rose points out in incredulity.

"The Headmaster and most parents agree that getting punished by the law when you're so young can cause major problems in adult life. But, honestly, fuck that. I think most cases would be better off being punished by the law. Do you know who usually is the executioner?"

Executioner? They kill people?

Rose and I shake our heads.

"Has any of you ever seen how merciless and devious Menah Peixes usually is?"

I think about it for a bit and then remember something "I've seen her break a guy's face with a volleyball in a match. The guy went out crying."

It was sad as shit.

"Now imagine getting one ball like that to the face through the average number of penetrations it takes for your gender to reach its peak sexual pleasure."

"To an Alpha that's about a thousand times, Karkat! That's torture!" Rose exclaims.

"Well, that guy is never gonna forget that kindergartens saying."

"What saying?" Karkat asks.

"You've never heard it?"

He shakes his head.

Me and Rose chant at the same time "If the Omega says no, away we go."

"That's a fucking stupid saying."

"No, it isn't. It's supposed to teach kids about consent."

"What? So other genders don't need to consent? Fuck you."

"And how many non Omega cases of rape have you ever seen, Karkat?" Rose asks with lots of venom in her voice.

"You forget that those things don't only happen because of your gender, Lalonde. They can happen because of age, sex, even fucking race" he points at himself, indicating that he's a troll.

"You mean ethnicity?"

"No. I mean actual race. We are from different species. No reproduction between us is even possible."

"So you're disregarding that it can happen because of skin color."

Time to intervene. This has gone on for long enough.

"Guys. Guys. Guys. Why did you two start a debate?"

They look at each other just realizing what it had become. Rose smirks. 

"Didn't you have a point, Karkat?"

"Right. I was going to say that Menah punishes people equally. She doesn't care about you being a freshman, sophomore, junior or senior, about being a rust blood or a high blood, male, female, it's all the same. That's what the student council is about. It's about equality.

But there are three elite electives that are gender exclusive. None of you could have noticed if you never tried picking an elective and no one will notice just from looking.

Advanced Mathematics and Analytics is an Alpha exclusive. Most that take this elective want to prove to their guardians they can take on the family business or that they don't need it and can do their own thing because they are intelligent enough to do it.

Gymnastics and Cheerleading is an Omega exclusive. They win a lot of competitions but they have a not so positive reputation inside these walls. They are absolutely devastating everywhere else, though."

"What is the other rep?" I ask since Rose doesn't look like she's going to.

"That they fuck everybody. Honestly, good for them. Nepeta is there. So is Equius. They seem like they are having fun and what they do with they genitals is far, very fucking far of ever being any of my business."

"They asked you to join, didn't they?" Rose asks.

"Yeah. I denied." I don't need anymore exercise than the training Bro puts me through. Lifting two jugs filled with water with my legs has given me the capability of doing splits at any position at any time. If I joined the Gymnastics team I'd just be flexing my ninja skills all day. 

And maybe drawing lots of attention.

…

Really don't need the attention.

"And what is the last exclusive?"

"Lacrosse. Only Betas. Vriska is the captain. Never seen the team lose. Vriska is a total bitch, don't get me wrong, she deserves the Menah execution too in my opinion, just less times than an actual rapist, but just as strong. Even then, I have to admit that she has some impossible strategies for the field. They are always so convoluted that the opposing team never knows what the fuck is going on. It's very impressive how she crushes the opposition with the pure power of making you get confused."

"That does sound like Vriska."

Agreed. I'm just surprised she managed to explain her plans with enough clarity for an entire team to actually be able to execute them.

“So… let me get this clear,” I just need to see if I got the point “you want to take a person that is not an alpha to the alpha den of the school, even if those alphas are not going to be happy about it?”

“No, Dave. I want someone that isn’t an alpha to take the elective. Not just ‘show up’ like we are some freak show that is going around town and you will never get the chance to see if you don’t buy your tickets in the Vantas Stand right now. Truth is that most people are just not interested in mathematics.”

“I am.”

I decided not to join an elective because most of them were sports related. I already do too much exercise. If I joined people were going to start asking questions and explaining to them that you don’t have parents and your older brother is a ninja swordsman who has been training you since before you could speak, doesn’t sound like the kind of topic that would get you invited to house parties.

The other possible electives were teather and band. Up until this point I didn’t even know there was an elective about math.

"YOU are interested?"

"Now I just feel offended. What is wrong with me being interested in math?"

"There is nothing wrong with it. But I was actually trying to get Rose interested in it because she already takes an elective that is not sports related. I thought you didn't give two shots about taking an elective at all."

"Not only I take it. I founded the Literature and Debate elective, thank you."

"You can just create an elective? Why doesn't everyone just do that then?"

Karkat opened his mouth but Rose cut him before he could put a word in "One needs at least another four to found an elective."

"And a fucking teacher. I still can't believe you managed to convince Snowoman of anything" Karkat adds, "I once tried to convince her of why leaving the door open was better then leaving it closed and after my impeccable, outstanding arguments she started nitpicking my English and my curses like I hadn't just destroyed her flawed, outlandish arguments."

"That is the problem with you in general, Karkat. You often act too aggressive. Even when you are right because of argumentational logic, the way you send the message is so raw and abrasive that people will forgo the entire logic because they feel personally attacked. You are not convincing. You are shouting in their faces that they are idiots."

"And what the fuck am I supposed to say if they are being fucking idiots? Oh. You're so smart. Let's follow your plan, but don't mind me laughing at your face when it all comes crashing down and every other wriggler in this room can't hold the burden of failure. Also, don't mind me extricating myself from this bathtub of flamming shit you guys thought it was a great idea to throw alcohol into. Cause that's what happens every time people don't listen to me. I get the fall for something I NEVER EVEN AGREED TO!"

"Then why do you stay at all? If people don't listen to you just jump ship."

Karkat closes his eyes and shakes his head, but doesn't say anything else. He covers his face with his hands and sighs, always shaking his head.

Rose and I just look at him, but he doesn't look like he is going to elaborate any further.

"Sooooo. Can I at least watch a meeting and see if I'll be interested or not?"

"Couldn't stop you from doing it if I wanted to. I don't recommend you show up today, though."

"What's wrong with today?" Rose asks.

"I'm going to have to call our patron teacher in today to defuse the heaping pile of bullshit from that fight I told you guys about. Let's say that bringing someone in the club for them to see someone else's ass get ripped from beneath them is not the best way to introduce a new member."

Ooooof. Okay. Yeah. Fair point.

"Now that you mention, I don't recall who is the current teacher that is in charge of your elective."

"You wouldn't know him anyway. Any of you. He teaches to freshman only."

"But maybe I've seen him on the corridors."

Karkat shrugs. Doubt he has any reason not to say it.

"It's Spades Slick. Most people call him Jack, though. He always wears card suit shirts and a stinky old fedora. He teaches math for the most part. Sometimes we play poker or blackjack and he show's the new members how to bluff and count cards and shit like that."

I'm getting more and more interested, now. We can just play cards in an extracurricular? That actually sounds awesome.

"He sounds like a chill dude."

"Up until you see him angry. Which is most of the time. Doesn't make it any less tolerable. He looks like he would mash you into troll or human mashed potatoes with a crowbar and laugh while he does it.

People usually say I have a pissed off face about everything. Jack is somewhat worse. He just looks like he wants to kill everyone all the time.

Don't hate me for having zero intentions of having you meet him when he will be actually climbing up the walls with a frothy mouth full of rabies. That's the level of angry I'm expecting."

"That sounds… very angry."

"What she said" I point at Rose but add something afterwards "But it's chill. I'll just show up when you think it might be more… safe?"

"Safe. Safe is definitely a word for this situation. God, I'm so fucked. But they are going to be so much more fucked than me. I hope no one gets suspended but I would not be surprised if they were."

He sighs and scratches his nose before announcing his exit "I have to go."

Before he leaves I feel his claws running on my hair, closer to my forehead all the way down to my nape. My hair gets pulled a little, and I look up, following the path. When I look up, Karkat is looking down, talking something to me that I absolutely am not getting.

My dick got pulled to the front seat and I have no idea what the fuck is going on.

Suddenly, Karkat stops talking and leaves, but the deed had been done. I had no clue what happened and had a full blown boner right in front of Rose.

I'm simultaneously mortified and uncaring. I don't even fix my hair, letting it fall however it finds convenient, just so I can feel the lingering feeling of nails on my scalp.

"Are you really intending on taking Karkat-"

"Yes."

…

Oh fuck. Oh no. That face. Rose, stop, don't make that face. My stupid Omega brain spoke out of time. Now she's going to think I like Karkat!

"Dave, are you-"

"No."

"But I didn't even-"

"Sooooo. Lovecraft. Right? Fascinating work describing nazis."

"Dave, why are you being so childish?"

"I don't know what you're talking about. I do know I have a shit ton of homework to deliver."

I get the papers from the envelope and wave them at her. Then the picture from one of the homeworks caught my eye. This guy isn't HP. Lovecraft.

"Rose, did you guys start something on Edgar Allan Poe?"

"Poe? The man who wrote Masque of the Red Death, The Oval Portrait and Cast of Amontillado?"

"Yeah. I think."

"That was the other literary assignment. The one Kanaya and Terezi had to do. Did Snowoman send you that one?"

I give her the paper "Apparently."

"Hum. I didn't read the Tell Tale Heart, but I did read The Cask of Amontillado. I can help you with that one. If the other story is anything like The Cask of Amontillado it's going to be short, but I can't tell you exactly what are the interpretations and conclusions you should get from it."

"Aren't Terezi, Kanaya and Karkat all in the same class? I could ask Karkat to help me after he's done with the math club and stuff."

I grab the paper back from her, but when I look up her smirk is back in place. God fucking damn it, Rose. 

"Why not ask Terezi, then? She's actually probably leaving from lacrosse training right now."

"I don't want to get my homework sweaty."

"Then you are going to wait for a whole hour and a half for Karkat to be done with his meeting just to help you?"

I was thinking so, but when you put it like that it does sound like a dumb idea.

"No. I'm just gonna hit him up with some questions tomorrow after I'm done reading the story. Though, now that you mention it and I'm thinking, I do have a lot of homework to do. In general. I could take the afternoon of today to kill the things that I know will be easy and just solve everything that's a little harder later today or tomorrow. I do need to read the story and we could use this one hour and a half to end this bullshit once and for all, and then I can busy myself with chemistry and physics. Jade has rugby tomorrow and I'm sure she could help me solve what I don't get. I read the math homework real quick and there's nothing I don't know how to do. We can do this, Rose. Teach me the Amontillado ways!"

"The rundown of the story is that one guy gets another drunk and seals him up on a wall. It's implied he died there from asphyxiation."

"Wow. Morbid. I think I like Lovecraft better."


End file.
